Summary

Owner

Current status

Detailed Description

The system-config-printer UI has been overhauled to look friendlier
and more in line with modern desktop applications. system-config-printer
no longer needs to be run as root.

More details:

The configuration tool window has been made a lot simpler. Instead of a list of printer names on the left and properties for the selected printer on the right, now there is just a box containing icons representing printers. Double-clicking on a printer opens a properties dialog.

The CUPS authentication dialog selects the appropriate user-name, and allows it to be altered mid-operation.

When the configuration tool is running, its list of printers is updated dynamically.

All jobs queued for a specific printer can be seen by right-clicking on a printer icon and selecting ‘View Print Queue’. To see jobs queue on several printers, select the desired printers first before right-clicking. To see all jobs, right-click with no printers selected.

The job monitoring tool displays a message when a job has failed. If the printer has been stopped as a result, this is shown in the message. A “Diagnose” button starts the trouble-shooter.

The job monitoring tool now performs proxy authentication. When a job is submitted but the CUPS backend requires further authentication information from the user, it stops the job. In this situation, the job monitoring tool will now display an authentication dialog so that the job can proceed.

The GTK+ print dialog gives more feedback about the status of printers,
e.g. printers which are out of paper show a little warning emblem on
their icon. Paused printers also show an emblem, and printers which
are rejecting jobs are grayed out.

Benefit to Fedora

Printing has traditionally been one of the more troublesome areas of
the free desktop. Small improvements like these make the printing
experience better for users.

Scope

Improvements to printer management have been implemented in system-config-printer. Improvements to the printing experience have been implemented
in the print dialog in GTK+.

Test Plan

Open up system-config-printer as regular user. Notice no root password is asked. Verify that s-c-p asks for the password when necessary (TODO: more detail needed here, see the bullet points in the detailed description above)

Use an application that uses the gtk print dialog, like evince, and open the print dialog. Now change the status of one of the listed printers, e.g. by putting it in paused mode, or by stealing all its paper. Note that the print dialog shows you the status of the printer by using a different icon, and by updating the status message.

User Experience

Here are some screenshots that show the improvements:

Printer status feedback in the print dialog:

The system-config-printer main window

The 'New Printer' dialog in system-config-printer

The trouble-shooting dialog in system-config-printer

Dependencies

None.

Contingency Plan

Not needed. These are incremental improvements that have already landed
in rawhide.

Documentation

None right now, besides the screenshots above.

Release Notes

I'm not sure if we really want to clutter the release notes with this kind of
experience improvements.